Monday, September 23, 2013

New Owl

Oh my goodness kids can be annoying especially when you don't feel well what the hell.

I was home sick from work yesterday and picked up the kids from their dad and friends last night. During the exchange, their dad mentioned that in the course of the previous night's sleepover, he had fallen asleep on the couch and woken up to find 3 of 4 slumber party girls, including both of our kids, awake at 4:20 a.m.

Violet told me she went to her room after her dad caught them awake to play with her puppets. Sounds reasonable. And there wasn't a lot of sleeping in the next morning so I picked up two really tired girls last night.

The combo of me not feeling well and the kids' tiredness must have been the cause of such a difficult Sunday with Violet. I'm a little tentative on that because there have been a myriad of difficult days with Violet recently - and really for her whole life so maybe I shouldn't point fingers.

Regardless, when we were getting ready for the birthday party Violet was invited to today, she started getting really cranky. I told her I was going down to my room to take a shower and she should be ready to go when I came back upstairs. I did notice her usual stomping and slamming while I was downstairs and shouted up occasionally for her to chill out. She suddenly came downstairs to talk to her older sister who was hanging with me while I was getting ready, confessing she had "accidentally" broken her sister Daisy's owl bank I was keeping on the fireplace mantel.

Yep, after she carried it to her room and stomped on it, it must have come as quite a shock when she broke that owl. I checked that Violet's feet weren't bleeding then interrupted the arguing sisters to say that I had put it on the mantel because I liked that owl - it wasn't just her sister. Violet ran upstairs and hid under her bed.

From there, we were a mess. At one point I pulled Violet out from under her bed and spanked her against my higher intentions of nonviolence. I was absolutely out of options in the face of Violet's noncompliance, evident by my emphatic yet ineffective appeal that she must listen to me because I am her mother.

After we got to the bowling alley, where the birthday party was taking place, Violet refused to socialize, opting to attach her back to the wall behind the lanes and scowl at the group of girls bowling and cheering for each other. Violet's sister and I were supposed to do a drop off - not join in the party - but I offered to keep an eye on Violet while she adjusted to the party. Apparently it was no deal, no way.

We gave up about 20 minutes later, taking Violet with us back to the car and making our apologies to the birthday girl. Violet refused to get in the car, taking her stand on the sidewalk in front of the Boardwalk, tourists strolling by with smiles on their faces. I offered to take her back into the party if she would talk to her friends. She said she wouldn't feel comfortable, even if I didn't make her bowl with those stupid shoes. I told her to get in the car. She said she didn't want to. That went on for several minutes.

Until I was literally yelling out the car windows as tourists turned their carefree heads from the sidewalk. GET IN THE CAR! NOW! GET IN THE *@$% car NOOOW!

Violet cried on the way home, and I attempted to debrief and discuss where we had gone wrong. I decided to stop by Goodwill so we could look for Halloween costumes, which seemed to be the right thing to do at the time. Daisy put together a Cleopatra costume for $15. Violet initially found several possibilities then spun out. Fine, go home.

The girls walked home while I stopped by the grocery store. On my return, I was thrilled the girls had made Violet's poster for her stint as "student of the week," which starts tomorrow.

Later, Daisy made us a creation she called BHC, Bread Ham Cheese, with a side of peanut butter pretzels and a shot of lemonade. I gladly broke my gluten-free lifestyle with Violet cuddled on my lap in front of the latest recorded Project Runway. It was a bit of needed peace.

And, I found a new owl bank for the mantel, compliments of Violet's pottery painting skills that I like even better than the old one.